Devil's Gambit
by ScreamingTemporalDoom
Summary: A new Terminator appears at the Connor's house with a grisly proposal to stop Skynet. Takes place sometime mid-Season 2.


Devil's Gambit

**Author's Notes: This is my first Sarah Connor Chronicles Story. All the usual disclaimers apply; I don't own it or most of the characters, etc etc.**

**Thanks for reading!  
**

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"Hello," the young blonde girl said as the door was opened, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips, "I'm looking for a friend. Here is a picture of him." The girl offered up a photograph.

Kacy Corbin glanced at the photograph; of course she recognized the person. It was John Baum, her teenaged neighbor. This wasn't the first time someone came looking for the family and Kacy was more than a little wary of giving information out. "Mm, who are you again?"

"Alice," the girl replied, faint smile still on her features, "My name is Alice. He is a friend from school. I've lost contact with him and would like to see him again. Have you seen him?"

Kacy Corbin paused, her eyes flickering from the picture to the girl then back before sighing. "Yeah, he lives next door," she finally replied, returning the picture, "Look, sorry about this. But they were robbed once and there was this creepy guy looking for Cameron, so I'm a bit iffy on strangers coming around. But, hey, a girl like you isn't going to cause problems."

"Cameron?"

"Cameron. John's sister?"

Alice paused briefly then nodded, still with the faint smile on her lips, "Thank you for explaining." The blonde turned on her heel, the smile immediately disappearing to be replaced with a blank, cold expression as she moved towards the neighboring house.

"Where's mom and Derek?" John asked to an attractive young woman as he moved through the kitchen.

"They are out scouting the Unity Corporation's headquarters," Cameron replied matter-of-factly.

John groaned faintly, shaking his head. "It's going to be another dead end, you know. How many of these corporations have we scouted now?"

"Two-hundred seventy-three."

"Right," John muttered under his breath before heading over to a laptop computer in the living room. He had just sat down when there was a knock at the door. He looked up and stood from his seat, moving to the door and peering through the peephole, seeing a young blonde girl no more than sixteen.

"Who is it?" Cameron asked.

"I don't know," John replied, "A girl. I've never seen her before." He paused briefly then opened the door slightly, "Yes?"

The girl paused for several moments then with surprising strength pushed the door wide open, sending John sprawling across the floor. Alice then advanced on the boy when she, herself, was sent sprawling by an impact from Cameron. Immediately, the blonde righted herself and began to grapple with Cameron. "Run, John! Run!"

Scrambling to his feet, John stood and ran through the house, towards the weapon's cache. Meanwhile, Cameron and Alice continued to engage, the faint whirring sound of servos struggling to keep up filling the air. Neither combatant expressed any outward emotion during the fight, both remaining placid and blank as they struggled. Cameron, however, seemed to be winning as Alice was slowly pushed to the floor, the grinding mechanized noises increasing. Suddenly, however, Alice turned to the side causing Cameron to go off balance and release the blonde's right hand. A small needle-like appendage shot out of Alice's forefinger which she then used to stab Cameron in the throat. Red blood-analogue began to ooze from the wound on Cameron's neck, and her movements became disorderly and sluggish. Within seconds, Cameron had collapsed, her body frozen in a strange rictus.

A shot rang out, hitting Alice in the shoulder, her body twisting away from the impact. Blood seeped from the wound made from the large-caliber weapon, staining the yellow sun dress Alice was wearing. A clicking noise indicated a newly chambered round. John was standing in the kitchen doorway, an exceptionally large rifle in his hands.

"Wait, please," Alice said, raising her hands as she stood, "I am not here to terminate you, John Connor. Please remain calm."

John was panting, sweating, his body shaking, but the gun remained level, steady, and even. He didn't fire, however, instead his eyes flickered over to Cameron, still on the floor in that strange frozen position. "W-what did you do to her?"

"She is temporarily disabled," Alice replied, her hands still raised over her head.

"She'll recover?"

"I can reactivate her."

"Do it. Now."

Alice paused briefly, canting her head to one side, "She will attack me on reactivating."

"She won't. I'll tell her not to. Now do it."

Another pause ensued before Alice glanced over at Cameron. Suddenly, the darker-haired Terminator jerked to life, moving out of the frozen rictus. After briefly looking around to assess the situation, Cameron rose and began advancing again on Alice.

"Wait, Cameron! Stop," John said, taking one hand off the gun and waving Cameron back, "She's not here to kill me."

"She attacked you," Cameron responded, though she dutifully stopped before reengaging.

"I didn't attack," Alice stated, "I pushed the door open. I was going to assist John Connor in standing when I was attacked."

"Cameron, close the door," John said, nodding towards the still-open door, though he kept the weapon trained on the other Terminator. Cameron immediately moved to comply. "So if you're not here to kill me, what are you here for?"

"I'm here to help you."

"Help me?" John asked, "I already have Cameron. Why do I need your help?"

"To stop Skynet," Alice replied, "You can't do it as you've been going. You need a new strategy. I am here to help provide it."

A strange scene greeted Sarah and Derek as they returned home. In the living room sat a young blonde girl in a yellow sundress, hands primly folded on her lap. Cameron stood not far away, staring unblinkingly at the girl. And John was holding a gun on her.

"What's going on?" Derek asked, looking the scene.

"She's one of them," John replied, still having the gun trained on the girl, "She says she's here to help." Derek immediately exited the room.

"Why the gun?" Sarah asked, nodding towards the weapon.

"She's... different. She's got some kind of thing which can disable other Terminators. I couldn't risk leaving her uncovered in case she attacked Cameron again."

"Again?" Sarah asked archly, heading over to John (and making sure to keep a wide birth from the blonde girl).

"Yeah, she did something to Cameron before."

A moment later, Derek returned, carrying a rifle and covering the new comer, "It's okay John. Put the gun down, I have her covered."

"Thanks," John said with a sigh, wiping sweat from his eyes as he lowered the firearm, "It was getting difficult." He turned his attention back to Alice, "Okay, so. Why are you here?"

"As I stated," she replied evenly, "I am here to help you stop Skynet. Your current strategy is flawed and doomed to failure."

"Flawed how?" Sarah asked suspiciously, sitting near John and taking his lowered weapon to train it on the girl.

"Your current strategy attempts to track down and destroy Skynet in its infancy," Alice stated matter-of-factly, "Unfortunately, this is a losing battle. There are many vectors for the realization of strong AI; academia, corporate, military. You can't stop - or even get advanced knowledge of - them all. The economic and sociological forces involved are simply too great; it's too much of an advantage for too many people to have access to strong AI. As technology advances, the tools and techiniques needed to produce such an AI become easier and easier to use, so the mean time between sufficient AI creation decreases. You are fighting a multi-headed hydra. No matter how many heads you cut off, there are always more. And they are coming faster and faster."

The blonde girl paused briefly before continuing, "In addition, the more you delay the eventual birth of Skynet, the older John Connor gets. If, by some miracle, you manage to stop Skynet for, say, fifty years, he will be in no physiological condition to run the Resistance. Skynet wins."

The three humans looked uneasily at each other, all very much aware of the uncomfortable logic of the machine's soliloquy. A long, awkward silence settled over the group.

"All right," John broke the silence, "What do you think we should do?"

"The solution is simple," Alice replied, "Modern civilization is what provides the impetus for Skynet's creation. Therefore, the most effective way to stop Skynet is to take out that support network. In other words, initiate a premature Judgment Day."


End file.
